Diablo 4 Sorcerer Lightning Build

As soon as I heard about available classes in Diablo 4, I knew that I will be playing as Sorcerer for my first build. You can keep your Druids and Barbarians all you want—I’m the spell caster at heart. The sweet torment began with deciding what elemental power I should use as the base for my build.

After careful consideration and the inspection of the skill tree, I opted for Lightning. However, that’s not where you can let Inarius (or Lilith—I’m not judging) take the wheel. If you want a Sorcerer that will obliterate hordes of demons with the speed and power of lightning, you will have to make some smart choices when spending your hard-earned skills. And this Diablo 4 Sorcerer Lightning build guide can help you get there the fastest!

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The Best Diablo 4 Sorcerer Lightning Build for Early Game (Levels 1-20)

If you want to play as a Lightning Sorcerer, you will have two options right at the beginning of your build—Spark or Arc Lash as your Basic skills. Depending on what you choose here, you can go in two quite powerful directions—one based on Crackling Energy and the other that will depend on some fiery help later on. I went with Arc Lash and then continued on like this for the first 20 levels:

• Enhanced Arc Lash
• Glinting Arc Lash
• Arc Lash 2-5 (to maximize its effects)
• Chain Lightning 1 (as the Core skill)
• Enhanced Chain Lightning
• Greater Chain Lightning
• Devastation 1-3 (to maximize your Mana—trust me, you’ll need it)
• Chain Lightning 2-5 (to max it out)
• Teleport 1-2 (as your main Defensive skill)
• Glass Cannon (to buff your damage even though it increases the damage you take—we’ll balance that out later)

You can go somewhat hybrid when you reach Defensive skills because Ice Armor and Frost Nova work great as well, but I stuck with Teleport, which got me out of many a sticky situation while dealing good amounts of damage, especially if you invest more than one point into this skill.

You will have the chance to do a side quest and unlock your first Enchantment slot at level 15, which I recommend you do as soon as possible. I used Chain Lightning in my first slot because it gives you additional automatic lightning when you spend 100 Mana, which is a requirement you should have no trouble with at any point.

The Best Diablo 4 Sorcerer Lightning Build for Mid-Game (Levels 20-40)

Around this point, you will be moving into the Conjuration skills territory, and the obvious choice is Lightning Spear. To balance out the incoming damage debuff of Glass Cannon, you should invest points into passives like Align the Elements and Mana Shield, which gives you Damage Reduction for five seconds for each 100 Mana you spend—again, you should have no problem with spending that much Mana because you will probably be spamming Chain Lightning anyway.

Moving onto the Mastery skills, you can go for Ball Lightning and improve its damage with Enhanced Ball Lightning (200% of your Attack Speed Bonus). However, the real star of this build is going to be the second Enchantment slot that you can unlock at level 30. Once you have it, make sure to go back all the way to the start of the skill tree and get Fire Bolt and assign it to the slot. Fire Bolt, used as an enchantment, applies burning damage to your lightning strikes, and with a few passives that you can unlock upon reaching, Ultimate skills will make this build shine much brighter (just like all the enemies dying from your brutal fire and lightning combo).

Of course, you can opt for this burning addition to your attacks as soon as you get the Enchantment slot 1, but there is really no need because you will immensely benefit from it only after you unlock Fiery Surge and Warmth. Fiery Surge increases your Mana regeneration for 3 seconds, starting from 10% whenever you kill a burning enemy. Warmth, on the other hand, will be a literal life savior because it heals you for every nearby burning enemy. With your Chain Lightning jumping around and dealing burning damage everywhere, you can see how amazing these two passives will become.

The Best Diablo 4 Sorcerer Lightning Build for Endgame (Levels 40-50)

As you approach the final segment of the campaign, you should invest some skill points into Unstable Currents as your Ultimate skill, especially if you haven’t had the chance to do it by this point. It essentially doubles your damage because whenever you use a shock skill, it will be followed by another shock skill that can be Core, Conjuration, or Mastery. Improve it even further with Prime Unstable Currents to increase your attack speed by 25%.

As you move to the end of the skill tree, I advise picking up Vyr’s Mastery which will increase your damage to nearby enemies by 10% and reduce incoming damage by 20%, making you technically indestructible at this point.

In case you have any points left, make sure to max out all the unlocked skills or unlock new useful passives like Invigorating Conduit, which will help with Mana regeneration by absorbing Crackling Energy, or Elemental Dominance, which will increase the damage of your Core skills when cast with 50+ Mana left.

I hope you have as much fun with this build as I did! Leave a comment below and explore the rest of our dedicated Diablo 4 section here on TouchTapPlay for more useful guides for your rampage through Sanctuary.